New Neighbor?

Michelle tells me we have a mink under the house again. She watched a mink come out from under the cabin and cross toward our Power Point on two separate occasions.

I had hints that a mink might be present last week when I sorted lumber for the veranda project (see It’s Time to Replace the Veranda). Digging around under the back bedroom add-on, I caught more than a whiff of mink musk.

We’ve lived next to minks fairly constantly since moving to the homestead. This has led to a fair amount of encounters, which we’ve chronicled on this blog and Web site. See, for example, Screams on the Beach and the video of baby minks, born under the cabin, playing (see it on our Wildlife page. Scroll past the moose to the mink photos).

We had at least one litter of kits under the cabin, as mentioned above. Another one was reared beneath the veranda. Our latest known mink neighbor lived in the rocks at the top of the Power Point. We saw it pass on the way to the beach now and then. I don’t know if this same individual has annexed our crawl space under the cabin, or if this is part of that same family? I would assume so. They’re pretty territorial, so we wouldn’t expect to see two unrelated minks living so closely together.

This won’t impact us much, other than being careful not to reach blindly into any holes or dark spaces. I’ve been face to face with minks under the cabin before. They don’t seem very impressed by me, which is good—I don’t want to face one that considered me a threat, if you know what I mean. As long as they’re not stressed (or too stinky) we don’t mind having them around. They’re calm, cute, and very interesting to watch.

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